"We don't need Republicans interfering with our lives. Get them out of our lives," Dean told a crowd of about 100 gathered in a posh Belltown condominium commons during an event hosted by the Women's Leadership Forum.

The Democratic fund-raiser was one of at least three events that Dean -- the new Democratic National Committee chairman -- headlined in Seattle yesterday during a one-day stop.

Coming a day before Republicans trot out their own stars in the battle for Northwest cash -- Vice President Dick Cheney stumps for Congressman Dave Reichert today at a downtown Seattle luncheon -- the event drew mostly die-hard Democratic activists, politicians and self-proclaimed "Deaniacs."

Dean's commandeering of traditional GOP stumping points, or a change in the party's message, is one of three points in a grass-roots strategy he envisions for Democrats in Washington and nationally.

To Dean, a message change means Democrats can no longer let Republicans set campaign agendas and force Democrats to respond defensively -- among "a number of reasons" Dean listed as why "we didn't win the election."

The next two points of the strategy seek to tap energized Democrats in beating Republicans at their own game: mobilizing the party's base and recruiting new members through old school, shoe-leather campaigning.

First, Dean soon will put four DNC-funded field directors in all 50 states for four-year commitments -- even in Mississippi, Kansas, and the reddest of the red states -- to organize, mobilize and conduct outreach efforts.

"We need to be everywhere," he said. "There's no such thing as a red state or a blue state, only purple states."

Next, Dean said the party must rally minorities and women early, or "reach out to our core constituency now -- not wait until Election Day." During the last presidential election, the party took for granted such traditional Democrats, and paid for it: For instance, Democrats lost ground with women in 2004, Dean said.

"I would like to find a woman to be the next mayor of Spokane," he said, adding that citizens turn to women to restore trust after public scandals.

Dean's schedule yesterday seemed to underscore his plan for engaging women and minorities. Before meeting with the women's political group yesterday, he attended events hosted by black and Asian Pacific islander groups.

He called upon Washington state -- which provided the one-time front-running Democratic candidate with his highest percentage of delegates -- to serve as a model for the party's national strategy.

Democrats here must spread from traditional strongholds, such as King County, to carry the party's message "on the ground and east of the Cascades," Dean said.

"We'd like to knock on every door ... and have an interaction with every woman, every African American, every Hispanic in the country."

Dean's message seemed to resonate with the choir.

Tom Golan, a Bainbridge Island resident who was a Dean delegate in 2004, said he applauds the message of fiscal conservatism Dean brings to the Democratic Party.

"I think he can help us get our financial house in order," he said.

Twelve-year-old Rose Petersky, a sixth-grader from Bellevue who'd already seen Dean speak once before in Idaho, said she admires Dean as "the only politician I know who really speaks his mind."

"I think there's hope for us," she added after hearing Dean's speech.

All the money raised at the fund-raiser yesterday will help the Women's Leadership Forum -- a Democratic organization formed in 1994 -- with its outreach efforts in getting women involved in the political process, said forum Executive Director Pamela Eakes. Organizers did not say how much was raised yesterday; tickets were selling at the door for $25.

Dean, who has drawn recent criticism for a stepped-up salty rhetoric that has chastised President Bush, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Rush Limbaugh, among others, continued such attacks yesterday.

"I'm tired of being lectured on moral values by the likes of Rush Limbaugh," he said. "They can't lecture us on moral values. This is the party that has the moral high ground and we ought to say that every day on the ground."